The Royal Canadian Mint.
The Royal Canadian mint is world-renowned, it also runs a precious metals refinery and is owned by Canadian Government.
The Royal Canadian Mint’s main site or headquarters is in Ottawa, Canada, which also incorporates the refinery, which produces bullion bars and coins.
The Canadian Maple Leaf gold and silver bullion coins are truly iconic. The Maple Leaf design is recognised globally, and the gold and silver Maple Leaf coins are arguably some of the biggest selling bullion coins in the world.
The Canadian Maple Leaf 1 Ounce Gold Coin was launched in 1979. Following that the Canadian Maple Leaf 1 Ounce Silver Coin and Maple Leaf 1 Ounce Platinum Coins were launched in 1988.
The Royal Canadian Mint also has a facility in Winnipeg. The facility produces Canada’s circulation coinage and also produces a large amount of coinage for other countries.
Key moments in the history of the Royal Canadian Mint.
The Royal Canadian Mint was first established in 1908 in Ottawa, but was a branch of the British Royal Mint. When the facility first opened, it had 61 employees.
In 1915 the Mint introduced a new chlorination process in order to reduce processing time and increase the Mint’s overall gold refining capacity. The mint now uses a process which is a combination of chlorination and electrolysis.
It was not until 1931 that The Government of Canada eventually gained control of the mint and the assets of the Mint were transferred to the Canadian Government, making the Mint a wholly Canadian institution.
The gold refinery in Ottawa was rebuilt in 1936. The refinery went on to produce 9999 fine gold bars and was the world’s first refinery to produce 9999 fine gold bullion coins. The refinery also managed to achieve the elusive 99999 fine gold purity.
The Royal Canadian Mint was incorporated as a Crown corporation in 1969, and was to produce the minting of coins and other products. This meant that the mint was no longer a branch of the Department of Finance, and was essentially now a corporation with its own Board of Directors.
The Royal Canadian Mint overall business consists of four distinct sections: Canadian circulation coins, production of foreign coins bullion, and numismatics (collectible coins and medals).
The Royal Canadian Mint recently opened a silver refinery. Not only does the Royal Canadian Mint have an integrated gold and silver refinery, it also offers secure storage for precious metals as well as some Exchange Traded Receipts (ETR).
Although the Royal Canadian Mint is not actually funded by the Canadian Government, recent legislative change in 2014 meant the Canadian circulation program is being run on a non-profit basis. The other areas of the business, such as Bullion products, numismatics and foreign circulation, are still run for profit business purposes.
Bullion Products.
The Royal Canadian Mint produces world renowned bullion Maple leaf coins in gold, silver, platinum and palladium, as well as some other bullion products.
The iconic Canadian Maple Leaf Bullion 9999 fine gold coin was released in 1979 and is manufactured in 1 oz, 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, 1/10 oz and 1/20 oz denominations.
The Canadian Silver Maple Leaf was first released in 1988. The 9999 fine silver coin is only produced in 1oz denomination.
The Gold and Silver Canadian Maple Leaf Bullion coins are extremely popular coins, and are the biggest selling bullion products that contribute the largest amount of total revenue for the Royal Canadian Mints.
The Platinum Canadian Maple Leaf coin was launched in 1988,
.9995 fine platinum is only produced in a 1 oz denomination.
The Palladium Canadian Maple Leaf coin was first minted in 2005, production was halted and then the Palladium coin was relaunched in 2015. The .9995 fine Palladium coin is only in a 1 oz denomination.
The Royal Canadian mint has recently launched a bullion product series of 1 gram gold Maple Leaf coins called MapleGrams.
In 2007 the Royal Canadian Mint produced the world’s largest gold coin, a 100 kg, 99.999% pure gold $1 million coin entering it into the book of Guinness World Records.
The Royal Canadian Mint also offers precious metals vaulting services to business accounts, storing Royal Canadian Mint branded bullion products on an allocated basis.
Refinery.
The Royal Canadian Mint gold refinery was first opened in Ottawa in 1911, a new silver refinery opened in 2005.
The refinery produces gold and silver bars, coins, wafers and granules for the precious metals, jewellery and industrial markets.
As well as the bullion coins the refinery also produces 400oz, 100oz, 1 kg and 1oz 9999 fine gold bars, 1kg 999 fine gold bars, as well as 1000oz and 100oz 999 fine silver bars. These bullion products are mainly produced for hedge funds, central banks, international bullion banks and bullion traders.
The Royal Canadian Mint is an associate member of the LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) and is an accredited refiner, part of the ‘Good Delivery List’ for producing gold and silver good delivery bars.
The Royal Canadian Mint gold and silver bullion wholesale bars are also approved for the COMEX (the principal market in which precious metals contracts are traded) and TOCOM (Tokyo Commodity Exchange) gold futures.
Ottawa and Winnipeg.
Ottawa is the Royal Canadian Mint’s central hub where all bullion coins are produced as well as commemorative coins, medals and medallions. Ottawa is also where the master tooling is done to create the dies that strike coin designs.
Ottawa is also the location for the Royal Canadian Mints gold and silver refinery.
The Royal Canadian Mint’s Winnipeg facility was officially opened in 1976 and now produces Canadian circulation coins as well as foreign circulation coins, producing coinage for over 70 countries.
Both sites are open to the public and run regular tours of the facilities.